To see an opera

[sunbaked_baker]

(Up in her room, Rae gets ready.)


When Sunshine comes down the stairs, today, she may not look wholly like herself. The baker is usually seen in the bar wearing bright t-shirts or sweaters, with colorful jeans and sneakers, her hair up in a ponytail or held back by a likewise colorful kerchief. One colorfully casual customer.

Today her hair is down, tumbling about her scarred shoulders in loose waves of red, and what she wears is not her normal style at all.

She takes care with her steps, and not just because of the silver heels that grace her feet. As she moves down the stairs, Rae consciously straightens her spine against the fluttery nervous feeling in her stomach, and hopes it will soon pass.

This is going to be an enjoyable outing. Rae refuses to let her feelings of self-consciousness mar it.



(ooc: Sunshine will likely be out of the bar for a while after this, so any and all threads are welcome, but will be millitimed to before her thread with Hannibal Lecter.)

Comments

[sunbaked_baker]

"There is a lot going on at once, in this one," she smiles faintly, reading. Two sisters of the king, both in love with the same slave... one of the sisters isn't really her father's daughter but was secretly the child of slaves, but determines to steal the throne from her father and seal the fate of her sister... and the king decides he's a god... and falls into madness when he finds his true daughter has allied herself with the slaves, and the other daughter takes the throne...

Such drama. "It sounds like an interesting tale. Ah, and the king regains his senses when he promises to convert." Of course he does.

"...And the elder daughter poisons herself?" Um.

[cook_the_rude]

"Presumably because her grab for power failed," Dr. Lecter says. "It sounds like an odd reason for suicide, but perhaps she felt she was preventing execution."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I figure it was for just that reason, but the way it's worded it felt a little out of nowhere."

The newly-sane king and the soldiers who were loyal to him save his actual daughter, both of them having converted to the 'correct' religion, and he frees the slaves, and the false daughter shows up having poisoned herself off-stage.

"Her hold upon the throne must not have been very good, even with her sister and mad father both imprisoned. Once they got out, her rule came crashing down with little effort."

Like the statue of Ba'al, falling by itself upon the king's word.

[cook_the_rude]

"That can happen when machinations like that collapse," Dr. Lecter says. "Usurpers often overdo the grasp for power, and people dislike feeling that."

[sunbaked_baker]

"No warning in flaming letters for Abigaille," Rae says, looking over the synopsis again to solidify the plot in her mind. "Just a surprise undermining of her identity."

Rae has to wonder, though, why she went directly from 'I'm adopted' to 'I'm going to steal the throne.'

[cook_the_rude]

"That can be very detrimental to anybody's sense of self," Dr. Lecter agrees.

[sunbaked_baker]

"It can," Rae replies, nodding. "She found out she wasn't who she thought she was, and saw it as betrayal."

Instead of asking the king about it, she sets out for revenge. And at the end, everyone is spared but her. Put this under the label 'Operas that could probably have been avoided with better communication between characters.'

"How much of this happened, historically, do you know?"

[cook_the_rude]

"Not much," Hannibal says. "Nebuchadnezzar was a king of Babylon who is associated with a great number of excavated buildings and is mentioned in the bible as having conquered the Israelites and taken them to Babylon, that is all."

[sunbaked_baker]

She sips her wine, looking at some of the other synopses in the book. "Neither the historical figure Nebuchadnezzar nor the version that appears in the Bible. Practically a whole different person, but for the name."

Reminds her more than a little of a certain vampire she knows.

Rae smiles as she finds the synopsis for the Ring Cycle, looking over at him. "I still would like to see Wagner's Ring Cycle, someday, if there's the opportunity." It's what brought up the subject of opera between them in the first place. The story she knows, translated into a format she doesn't.

[cook_the_rude]

"Oh, absolutely," Dr. Lecter says. "I have several versions in DVD; we can pick one, then we can hole up somewhere with decent provisions and watch the lot. But that might be better in Milliways, actually. Nobody will call or ring my doorbell there."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I'd enjoy that," she smiles, sipping her wine from her nearly-empty glass. "Though I've heard watching the whole thing at once is a serious undertaking. Fifteen hours? That would beat my current record for movie-marathoning by quite a ways, Dr. Lecter."

She likes that part of her life has gotten back to the point where she can watch movies with friends. Whether they be recorded operas, or silly comedy films. It is something she's missed. So often these last couple of years, movie night at the coffee house has been so normal and quiet, sitting in a room full of fragile human bodies, enjoying the show and not thinking about the world outside, that it often puts her on edge. On edge in ways she can't explain to the people around her.

Even if it's just through the friends she has made in Milliways, Rae is glad to have some of that back.

[cook_the_rude]

"Yes, just about," Dr. Lecter says. "We'd start with breakfast, and end with a late supper. I'll have a kitchen added to my office in Milliways."

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae tilts her head, still smiling slightly. "I didn't know you had an office in Milliways. But that makes sense - I met a woman there recently who mentioned she had seen you for therapy."

[cook_the_rude]

"Oh?" Dr. Lecter says. "Who was that?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"I was hoping to ask you that, actually," Rae says, faintly wry. "She forgot to mention her name. She wanted to commission a wedding cake from me."

[cook_the_rude]

"I suppose that rather puts me in the spot," Dr. Lecter says. "Theoretically, I should ask her permission to mention her name to you; practically, it might be easier if you just describe her to me, so I can be sure."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oh - I'm sorry, I didn't even think," Rae shakes her head, apologetic. Doctor-patient confidentiality is not something that has ever cropped up in Rae's experience. "I was just concerned I didn't know who to leave a note for, when the time came."

"I had been planning on heading home soon," like later today soon, as he knows, "but neither her nor my door is reliable, and with the time differences between worlds, the cake will likely have to come first."

"She's a soldier of some sort. Tall, blond hair and blue eyes?"

Kind of presumptuous?

[cook_the_rude]

"I know who she is," Dr. Lecter says. "If you want me to leave a note for her concerning the cake, just tell me, and I'll do it for you."

He finishes his glass.

"Let's go to the kitchen and grab ourselves something with avocado before we have to leave for the opera, shall we?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"It'll take me a while to actually make the cake," she admits. "I've never made a wedding cake before - this'll be my first - and it's been years since I've done any decorative icing. I want to make sure it turns out well."

Her own standards of quality won't accept anything less. So she'll be practicing, first.

Rae smiles slightly, and finishes her wine as well. "Sure. That sounds good."

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal opens a door. "It's downstairs," he says, gesturing. "Would you like a helping hand with the cake, once you're sure of the parts?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae follows, glancing at the art upon the walls as they go. "I think I'll be able to handle it, but thanks for the offer. It's been long enough that I should probably give decorative icing another chance, anyway. Just to keep my hand in, even if I don't use the skill that often."

[cook_the_rude]

"Are you going to do it before you leave for your world?" Dr. Lecter asks, leading the way downstairs.

[sunbaked_baker]

"I think I'll have to," she replies. "It's no good, taking a commission and then accidentally disappearing back to my world until after the wedding. I can't say with any reliability when my door will appear, or how time in my world will pass differently than in the bar, and neither could the woman who ordered the cake."

[cook_the_rude]

The stairs lead to a large foyer, tiled in trompe-l'oeil marble, with doors leading off in all directions. One, thrown open wide, leads to a reception room with a massive fireplace and a harpsichord, and several sofas. It is all rather palatial, and filled with historic art.

"Dining room and kitchen are over there," Dr. Lecter gestures.

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae can't help but stare, as much as she tries to keep it off her face. Everything is so lush. The colors are richer, the lights brighter and the shadows darker. Like an art gallery, there is too much to take in at once - cursory glances do not do anything justice. The only things her eyes shy away from are certain of the decorations. Horns, antlers, skulls of various creatures. Some worked into arrangements of flowers, as though to accent the underlying symbolism of all flowers - life is brief. Beautiful, but brief.

The heels of her silver-white shoes echo upon the marble.

"Your house is very beautiful," Sunshine murmurs. Because there is too much here, too much that she perhaps had never truly believed would actually exist in an actual person's house, for it to go without comment.